Joe Biden will launch presidency with appeal for unity – but whose unity?

When Joe Biden takes the oath of office on Wednesday, the new president will appeal for national unity from the steps of the US Capitol, where two weeks ago a mob, incited by Donald Trump, stormed the building in a violent attempt to prevent this very moment.

Though their efforts failed, the bloody insurrection exposed the fragility of America’s commitment to a peaceful transfer of power, underscored by Trump’s absence at his successor’s inauguration ceremony.

As he takes his oath, Biden will not look upon an expanse of cheering crowds and American flags: a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic which has claimed about 400,000 American lives. Instead, in the aftermath of the assault on Congress, he will see the nation’s capital fortified on a scale not seen since the civil war.

So begins the Biden era.

“Not since FDR, in 1933, has a president come in facing so many urgent challenges,” said Bob Shrum, the veteran Democratic strategist.

Upon his inauguration, the culmination of a career-long pursuit, Biden must immediately confront an ever-worsening pandemic that killed more Americans each day last week than died on September 11 or Pearl Harbor and an ailing economy that is exacerbating inequality along lines of race and gender, while the persistence of racial injustice and the global threat of climate change demand action.

All of this while the Senate begins an unprecedented second impeachment trial of his predecessor over his role in provoking the 6 January unrest that left five dead, endangered the lives of lawmakers, congressional staff and the vice-president, and delayed the certification of the electoral count.